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 The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive
breastfeeding for the first six months of life and then advises
mothers to keep nursing while starting to introduce solid foods.
For the current study, researchers examined whether the source of
food – homemade or commercial - influences variety, infant growth
and weight. They found babies who only ate homemade foods had more
diverse diets earlier in life and lower body fat mass when they were
1 year and 3 years old.
"The results could have implications for preventing obesity and
chronic diseases associated with poor food choices," said lead study
author Dr. Elise Mok of the Research Institute at McGill University
Health Centre and the Montreal Children's Hospital.
"Given that food preferences begin early in life, are likely to
persist and are difficult to change in adulthood, providing
appropriate food choices during the complementary feeding period is
of importance to facilitate food acceptance and ensure healthy
growth and development," Mok added by email.
WHO guidelines urge parents to feed babies a varied diet including
meat, poultry, fish and eggs along with a range of fruits and
vegetables starting at age 6 months.
Previous research suggests that commercially produced baby food can
contain high amounts of sodium and sugar and be of a consistent
texture and appearance that may limit children's acceptance of new
foods with different textures, researchers write in the
International Journal of Obesity.
Homemade foods, by contrast, can provide a broader range of flavors
and textures that might encourage children to eat a wider variety of
things as they get older, the authors note.
For the current study, researchers examined dietary data on 65
infants and assessments of body fat from exams when infants were 6,
9, 12 and 36 months old.
By 9 months of age, 14 babies, or 22 percent, had exclusively
received homemade food and another 14 infants ate only commercially
produced food. Most babies got a combination of both types of food.
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There weren't any differences in the babies’ lengths or how much
they weighed for their age based on what the infants ate. Calorie
and nutrient intakes also didn't differ by group over time.
However, when researchers scored babies' diets based on how many of
seven different food groups they consumed, the infants getting only
homemade food achieved scores almost a full point higher than babies
getting only store-bought foods.
At one year of age, babies who ate only homemade food had a lower
percentage of body fat than the other infants in the study.
Beyond its small size, other limitations of the study include its
reliance on parents to accurately recall and report how babies were
fed, the authors note. The study also included families that may be
more affluent and educated than the general population and focused
on breastfed babies, which may mean the results wouldn't apply to
all infants.
The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to prove how
infant food choices directly impact children's eating habits as they
grow up.
"Although the observed association cannot confirm a cause and effect
relationship, parents should be informed about the provision of
home-prepared meat, fruit and vegetables during a baby's transition
to solid food is linked with increased diet diversity in the first
year of life," Mok said.
SOURCE: http://go.nature.com/2mbukvg International Journal of
Obesity, online February 6, 2017.
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